Esterification is a reaction in which an alcohol and an acid form an ester as a reaction product. Specifically, during an esterification reaction the alcohol and the acid react to form the ester and water. One process for conducting an esterification reaction is reactive distillation. Reactive distillation, which achieves separation of the desired product while carrying out the reaction in the same unit, is used in many applications. However, such methods rely on boiling point differences, and may not be applicable for thermally sensitive compounds. As such, there is a need in the art for an esterification reaction process that is useful for the reaction and subsequent separation of thermally sensitive compounds.